Obama says next nuclear summit to be in Chicago

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — President Barack Obama says world leaders will convene in his hometown of Chicago in 2016 for the next Nuclear Security Summit.

Obama announced he would host the next gathering at Tuesday's closing of this year's summit in the Netherlands.

He's praising new commitments made at the summit by Japan, Italy and Belgium to reduce their stocks of nuclear materials.

Obama launched the nuclear summit series in 2010 in an attempt to secure materials and keep them out of the hands of terrorists. Since then, the number of countries that have enough material to build a nuclear weapon has fallen from 39 to 25.

Obama says the next summit will be a "transition" summit where heads of state will look to hand over responsibility for nuclear security to their ministers.